Once again, I have decided to publish another article. Enjoy this one. Soak it all in. I don't publish often. Recently, the Feds have been interviewing various notable members to shine a light on the people who have played a role in the Party's success and helped improve its image. Gnilraps is a shining example of those qualities. Who is better than me to grab the honor of telling you about my friend Gnilraps? Seriously, I called dibs on this interview. That might be shocking to some of you who are aware of my past hostilities toward Gnilraps. I forgave him and rejoined the Feds. That is now all in the past and I have no further animosity towards him. That is all that needs to be said on the matter. So without further ado, I present you with this opportunity to examine the character and accomplishments of a Federalist named Gnilraps.

Gnilraps, would you tell all of us what brought you to the eRep community and what is it that made you stay?

eRepublik is the second MMORPG I have played. I started with “Kings of Babylon” about 5 years ago - a game I found on facebook. It was a smaller scale game than this, but it had a (much less well developed) dynamic of community-building and I became the “Lord” of the “Blue Realm” and our Realm ended up on top when they closed the server. I remember pathetically staring at my computer screen, staring at the KoB home page and thinking, “I can’t believe this is over.” I obviously needed a new game so I googled, researched, and by the next day I had begun my eRepublik life.

As far as what made me stay - once I start building something (in this case a “character” called “Gnilraps”, I have an inner drive to want to keep building. Even when my wife gave birth to our youngest (daughter) and I had to two-click for about 6 months, I still had it in the back of my mind that the day would come when I would more fully explore the eRepublik gaming world.

What makes you proud/horny to be a Fed? Tell us about your experiences with the Party and the different roles you played during your time with us.

We all have our little sandboxes in this game, don’t we? The Federalist Party became one of my favorite sandboxes early on. Then when I started devoting more time in this game, I discovered that it was a great fortune for me to have found this Party. The ethos in the Federalist Party is one where the game itself is taken very seriously, but even more serious is the notion that we are real people doing the playing.

So we as Federalists, as we scratch around in our sandbox, become more and more Federalist as we go. We actually adopt the profound notion that our ingame ethics are merely a contrivance of game play. We say Nation>Party>Self not because these are good real life ethics but because as ingame ethics they turn us into interesting and useful characters. When the Federalist ethic became my game strategy, the game became more fun and interesting. The times I have had the least fun in this game were when I stepped outside of the Federalist ethic and acted selfishly.

What makes me proud/horny as a Federalist is that when I log into this little fantasy world, part of my identity is defined through this contrived submission to an also contrived higher good: the greatness of the eUSA and the sustenance of her greatest Political Party, the Federalist Party. As a real life person, it is a deeply satisfying game experience for me to maintain those loyalties. So I am quite proud and most definitely horny.

I'm impressed by your answer, but I also wanted more detail on the different roles you played in the Federalist Party. You might as well mention your influence in the national scene.

Here's what I am sure of:
Fed PP x4
WTP PP x2 (wherein I was the national ATO candidate)
eUSA Vice President
eUSA Secretary of Defense x3
eUSA Secretary of Media x4
eUSA Select Committee on Intelligence
eUSA Economics Council Member
Congressman x7
Commander of Easy Company
and now I just run our communes.

I have done two “rounds” of national political activity. The first “round” was through the national Media publishing WHPR. I’d have done a better job of that if I had spent more time in national government prior to being the Secretary of Media. But it was still fun.

My second round was in the Defense department. That is a thankless job. The notion of an appointed official having authority over a set of ingame MU’s merely because they receive funding by congressional decree is a contrivance that is difficult to establish let alone maintain.

What is your most memorable moment in your experience being a Fed?

The moment which I recall with greatest clarity was that one night in #FedPartyChat when someone said to me, “Hey Gnilraps, you need to either accept or decline your nomination for Party President.” I hadn’t even logged into the Fed Forum recently enough to know I had been nominated, so not only did I not know I had been nominated, I assumed that the person who said that to me was just trolling me! That was the night when I determined to become Politically active despite having almost no actual Political acumen at all. (I still don’t, really)

Give us some behind the scenes stuff that led to you becoming PP of WTP and why you left. Tell us the story of how the RLC became WTP and how you and the Feds played an important role in making that happen.

Dutch Marley and I had begun talking about what would become of the RLC during the early days of his term as Party President. At that time I was still a Federalist and CO of Easy Company. Dutch wanted so badly to keep that party out of Chickensguys/Captain Quark’s hands. So he and I started brainstorming. At that time I was also a member of the NSC, so I started to discuss the entire plan with them. The first time I ran against CG/CQ I was so far down the ballot list that even I had a hard time voting for me. When CG won we were pretty upset but we now had an entire month to plan. I actually created a GoogleDoc which invited each of the top Parties (plus several active “6th” parties) to commit to a certain number of votes. So we knew a week before election day that we had at least 130 votes. The rest would have to come via hard work on election day. Because I was a national ATO candidate, even some of my political enemies were working to get me elected that day. I even saw Pfeiffer whipping up votes for me, and at that time he and I struggled to share any kind words between us.

Anyway, the name and logo and the early propaganda was all in place before election day.

What was poorly planned on my part was the additional burden of serving as Secretary of Defense at the same time. Then Real LIfe hit me pretty hard when my wife lost her job - putting a serious crimp in my available gaming time. So the work of actually building WTP into a legitimate party would have to fall to others, and that is where John Jay, Dutch Marley, Candor, and a few others took the ball and ran with it.

What is your favorite activity in this game? What do you enjoy most among all your previous and present responsibilities?

My favorite aspect of this game is that it is a tabula rasa for creativity. I have concocted dozens of little narratives I’d have liked to play out as Gnilraps that have never seen the light. But eRepublik is not a chess game where you can sit back and contemplate your move. eRepublik is more like the public swimming pool where if you stand around on the diving board and contemplate too long you’ll just get shoved off. So I like the rush that comes from having to just “jump in” sometimes.

Right now my favorite activity is watching everyone else play.

Do you have further aspirations in this game? Would you like to revisit a previous role you had?

I will always want to be elected President of eUSA, probably until the day after it actually happens.

You've been in EZC for a long time now. How have your various roles in the MU made the game more fun and challenging for you?

The battlefield is the bread and butter of this game. It’s not all you want for dinner, but it goes with everything. So being established in an active MU can be an important part of playing this game.

Because Easy Company is joined at the hip with the Federalist Party, there is a double portion of Proud/Horny that comes from being both. So I am not merely Proud/Horny, I am quite literally swelling enormously with P/H. And you know where that leads...